CARGREEN YACHT CLUB

The best little yacht club on the Tamar

The Club has recently had to take action regarding a motor boat which appears to have been abandoned on one of our moorings. The boat has no identifying name or mark and no SSRI number and a 'round robin' to members has not revealed the owner.Your Committee has applied the recently adopted ‘Abandoned Boat Policy’ and has attached a notice to an offending boat demanding that the owner contacts Club forthwith.Unauthorised occupation of our moorings prevents us from allocating the position to a member and deprives the Club of income. However we are constrained in the actions that we can take by the Torts Act 1977.

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is carrying out an investigation into the fatal man overboard accident on board the yacht CV30, which was taking part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

The yacht was on the third leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race having left Cape Town on 31 Oct 2017 bound for Fremantle, Western Australia.

On 18 Nov 2017, the yacht was approximately 1,500nm from Fremantle, when a crew member fell overboard. He was attached to the yacht by his safety harness tether. The hook at the end of the tether that was clipped to a jack-line, deformed and released resulting in him becoming separated from the yacht. He was recovered unconscious onto the yacht but sadly could not be resuscitated.

INITIAL FINDINGS

The crew member was using a three-point webbing tether attached to the integral harness of his lifejacket that allowed him to clip on to the yacht with a short or long tether. A safety issue identified during the investigation was that the hook on the end of crew member's tether had become caught under a deck cleat (see Figure 1 below), resulting in a lateral loading that was sufficient to cause the hook to distort (see Figure 2 below) and eventually release.

Both images are copyright MAIB.

The tether hook was of a conventional design and quality of build, and was commonly used by manufacturers of safety harnesses and tethers that were certified under ISO12401. When loaded longitudinally, the tether can withstand a load of over 1 tonne. However, when loaded laterally a tether hook will deform at much less load. It is important that tether hooks remain clear of obstructions and are free to rotate to align the load longitudinally.

SAFETY LESSON

To prevent the strength of a safety harness tether becoming compromised in-service due to lateral loading on the tether hook, the method used to anchor the end of the tether to the vessel should be arranged to ensure that the tether hook cannot become entangled with deck fittings or other equipment.

The RYA is concerned that the future quality and availability of antifouling paints, in particular for pleasure craft use, is in doubt due to the requirement for all biocidal products to undergo a stringent authorisation procedure under the Biocidal Products Regulation (EU) No.528/2012 (BPR). More details are here and the page will open in a new tab/window: RYA Notes on Future of Antifouling

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The British Coatings Federation (BCF) has issued a number of information leaflets:

VHF Channel changes from Wed 6 Sep 2017Maritime and Coastguard Agency announces VHF Channel changes starting in September 2017Boat owners, shipping companies and anyone who puts out to sea are being informed about a change in some of the VHF channel numbers used to contact UK Coastguard.

As a result of changes to Appendix 18 (Marine VHF) of the Radio Regulations it will mean that VHF channels 23, 84 and 86 will no longer be used for either Maritime Safety Information (MSI) or Radio Medical Advice.

The channels to use from Wednesday 6th of September 2017 are VHF 62, 63 and 64. The use of VHF Channel 10 for MSI and pollution control (back up) is unchanged.

Mark Lawson from the Maritime & Coastguard Agency said: “Although the change is not happening until September, when it happens the changeover will be absolute and we want to make people aware of this changeover in good time given our commitment to deliver maritime safety and wider support to the maritime community.

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